I-40 shutdown due to crash

East of Cherry St live.

Cherry St at I-40 live.
Traffic Cameras provided by TDOT SmartWay (per linking policy)

These are the cameras that you see around town. These are not red light cameras. The red cameras have not been installed yet.

A tractor trailor crash has shut down part of I-40

The following content reposted from June 22, 2005.

I'm an observant person. I watched the traffic cams get installed by TDOT. For a long I have intended to call TDOT and ask, "are those cameras available to the public?" Ironically, being a web guy, I never bothered looking online until one of the local news stations mentioned the 75 cameras are online (though by my count I only see 66). Have a look at a picture of a TDOT SmartWay camera.

Additional information about the TDOT $20 million SmaryWay system is available including cameras statewide and information about Tennessee 511 a service that provides traffic information from any phone. TDOT is also in Alabama.

From the Smartway FAQ:

Other benefits include:

• Providing live video to local television stations that is used during their rush hour traffic reports
• Website access to current construction and incident information.
• Shorter crash response time by emergency response agencies including TDOT HELP trucks
• Using the system to assist in AMBER ALERTS
• Radio reports of current construction and incident information available on the highway advisory radio (HAR) system.
• Use of the system to complement Homeland Security evacuation plans

Now when you want to leave the house you can check to see if I-40 is jammed or not!

Synchronized Christmas Light Show - Snopes Update

Snopes has updated the status of the Christmas Light Show to "true"!

Hmm

Of Grasshoppers

Student: I can't beat these odds!
Master: Change games.

Technology Unreigned

Kids, vibrating pajamas, and chickens. Add the word "choke" in there and someone's naive good intention is going land people in jail.

But I can prove I never touched ____

All joking aside, this is really cool and puts us so much closer to true virtual reality experiences!

Singapore scientists looking for ways to transmit the sense of touch over the Internet have devised a vibration jacket for chickens and are thinking about electronic children's pyjamas for cyberspace hugs.

233 is not an integer

One of those tests...

Ok. I took one of those tests. It was the T&A and Cuteness test. See results. Like horoscopes, I think the results of this test could have said most anything and you would nod your head and agree.

Cute & Small Boobs Raw score: 44% Big Breasts, 45% Big Ass, and 68% Cute!

Thanks for taking the T and A and C test! Based on your selections, the results are clear: you show an attraction to smaller breasts, larger asses, and sexier composure than others who've taken the test. Note that because you scored small on breasts but large on ass size, it might appear you like girls bottom heavy. That's probably not the case. What's more likely is that you notice curvy, voluptuous butts, and you don't like big, fake boobs. Big real boobs are even worse because of the sag. Anyway, my third variable, "cuteness" is a mostly objective measure of how innocent a given model looked. It's determined by a combination of a lot of factors: lack of dark eye makeup, facial expression, posture, etc. If you scored high on that variable, you are either really nice OR you're into deflowering teens. If you scored low, you are attracted to raunchier, sexier, women. In your case, your higher than average score suggests you appreciate a cuter, nicer look. Kudos! Recommended Celebrity: Hilary Duff, because she is the ultimate in cute! Especially since she lost that baby fat!

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 37% on tit-size You scored higher than 39% on ass-size You scored higher than 79% on cuteness

Link: The Tits, Ass, and Cuteness Test written by chicken_pot_pie on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Progressive Walmart?

This interesting article labels Walmart as "progressive" and good for the poor citing that Walmart's $200 billion-plus assistance to consumers rivals federal programs such as food stamps ($33 billion) and earned-income tax credit ($40 billion).

If critics prevent the firm from opening new branches, they will prevent ordinary families from sharing in those gains. Poor Americans will be chief among the casualties.

Another interesting tidbit is that the "average Wal-Mart customer earns $35,000 a year, compared with $50,000 at Target and $74,000 at Costco."

Flickr is for Photos; Berenstain Bears are dead; Scarry Changes

Oh the things I wouldn't know if not for blogs! I was looking in on Drawn! this morning and discovered some interesting tidbits.

Flickr is for photos

[Flickr] want[s] to assert themselves as a site for sharing photographs, and any accounts that are extensively non-photographic in nature (ie illustrations) will be rendered NIPSA, or Not In Public Site Areas. ...your images will not show up in searches or tag results, and this includes any legitimate photographs in your account as well.

Stan Berenstain dead

While there are no official press releases yet...

Richard Scarry Gets PC

I'm sure everyone has this book in their house. Now check out the changes from 1980 to 1990.

Of Grasshoppers

Student: I am not looking forward to today.
Master: Will you brood over it tomorrow?

Of Grasshoppers

Student: I am dropping my greatest vice cold turkey!
Master: What's wrong with cold turkey?

Of Grasshoppers

Student: Why can't I learn to keep my mouth shut?
Master: Happiness comes to the man who communicates with his ears.

From the mouths of babes

Amy, 3 years old, was playing with these finger puppets and announced, "it's Star Whores!" 

Anyone else notice the irony in the manufacturer's choice of colors, politically speaking?

From the mouths of babes

9 year old: "Now that I have [cable] in my room I don't play the Playstation nearly as much!"

Can you really shoot a lock off?

Interesting pictorial from someone that shot several locks to see if they could do what we see in the movies.

De-stress! Walk the dog.

More acceptance that animals reduce stress.

WALKING the dog, stroking the cat or even swimming with dolphins could be the best medicine for coping with stressed-out modern life, doctors said yesterday.

They went there

Guess what sarah wants

Simple pleasures

What's in a name?

Webmasters who didn't think (or did they!) when registering their domains!

My favorites are http://www.penisland.net/ (worksafe) and http://www.therapistfinder.com/.

Of Grasshoppers

Student: I have lost one of my greatest reasons for living.
Master: Live on so that others don't lose their greatest reason for living.

Even kids show characters have to supplement income

Oobi the scratch master!

From the mouths of babes

I ask the 3 year old to put the infants dirty diaper in the diaper pail while I finish putting on the new diaper. She walks half way down the hall, turns toward me, holds the diaper on the fingertips of one hand, and exclaims, "It's a miracle!"

Synchronized Christmas Light Show

Amanda Congdon of RocketBoom fame introduced us to a house lit with Christmas tree lights syncrhonized to Trans-Siberian Orchestra's "Wizards in Winter" (from The Lost Christmas Eve album) in her Monday show then again on Tuesday which also revealed the house to be in Mason, OH. Apparently Carson Williams used 88 light-o-rama channels to control his 16,000 christmas lights.

Amanda has the full video of the house's show.

On Tuesday Amanda told us that the light show had made it into Snopes with an "undetermined" status. I guess I need to send my folks on the hunt for the house. Should be easy since Amanda's Tuesday show also revealed the home owner's name with credits to Alek. Now I think Amanda pronounced Snopes incorrectly. I pronounce it with a long O same as you would "nope" but Amanda pronounced it with an ew sound like in Snoopy which would make sense because the definition of snoop is " To pry into the private affairs of others, especially by prowling about." however I think that it wouldn't be Snopes then it would be Snoops.

Of Grasshoppers

Student: I won't talk about the problem.
Master: Then I won't talk about the solution.

Of Marriage

One of the beautiful things about marriage is you can do something wrong and go to your grave having never figured out what it was.

Lookie Lookie!

The camera appears to be working again. Unfortunately I think Cathy is wearing pants.

Of Grasshoppers

Student: Opportunity knocks.
Master: Read the small print.

Of Grasshoppers

Student: I'm up early!
Master: Will you dream while awake?

I knew they were coming but this is the first pods i have seen. What a great idea!

From the mouths of babes

How to horrify Dad.

While walking through Walmart, Amy (3) says, "He's black."
We continue walking as Dad processes Amy continues, "I want him to be like us."
Dad thinking he misheard the conversation asks, "what?"
Amy declares, "I want him to be white."

A thousand thoughts rush through my head most questioning how I could possibly be teaching bigotry to my children. Let's see. No racial jokes. Hmm. We don't have many friends from other races and cultures right now but for the most part our schedules and economics have alienated ourselves from everyone so we don't really see many people outside of the family. I do like the theme song to All In The Family but I don't think that would do it. Finally I land on the conclusion that it is simply the naivety of a child's world.

Dad, the Meathead that he is, flubs with "that's not nice. We like people just the way they are."
Mom upon hearing the story soars in on angelic wings and artfully delivers this wonderful metaphor of crayons to people and how boring our pictures would be if the only color in our box was white.

Both ladies left Dad's chin on the ground today!

TN Finds Loophole in No Child Left Behind

Heard this on NPR this morning and was appauled appalled! Appalachistan sums it up.

Baby T-shirts You Won't See At Walmart

My child owns 2 of these. Work safe but some dirty words and could potentially deflower innocent minds.

Ah! The name makes the person

Oh look! Wikipedia might explain some of Amy's 3 year old behaviors:

Amy is a given name, a variant of Aimée, which means beloved' in French which in turn is a derivative of Latin's amicus or amica which means friend.
AND
In demonology Amy is a demon, a Great President of Hell.

Strangely enough, I must give Tim credit for pointing this out.

Of Grasshoppers

Student: Change hurts.
Master: Not changing hurts more.

Woohoo!

Goodbye woods. Goodbye calming walks. Goodbye thoughts of grooming a walking trail. Blasted developers.

9 year old brain?

The nine year old stares intently into the microwave containing the stash of glazed doughnuts scavenged from Krispy Kreme last night. Krispy Kreme gives one free glazed doughtnut for every A on a report card (limit 6) K through 8. They used to give any free doughtnut of choice but some nimrod, whiney parents brought an end to that but I'll save the rant for another time. Noah scored a full half dozen. Sarah got 2 but received 4. Tommy aged out. The hot doughtnut sign was on and to keep peace in the house I bought another dozen which if divided evenly between Mom, Amy, Dad and Tommy would give each of the non-qualified eaters 3 doughtnuts.

Let's return to the nine year old staring into the microwave as if he'd discovered the answer to Life, The Universe and Everything (amz). Upon inquiry he reveals that he is trying to decide between eating out of the large box or his box. "That way once all those doughnuts are gone I still have these." I am taken back by the selfishness but amused at the ingenuity of the thought process. A quick math discussion, along with a definition of "staleness," and Noah makes the right decision.

Of Grasshoppers

Student: The rain is here.
Master: Even Mother Nature needs to cry and is better for it.

Of Grasshoppers

Student: I cannot do what I must do because of things I have to do.
Master: Perhaps you should separate yourself from the things you have to do.

Of Grasshoppers

Student: I acted irresponsibly and this time people got hurt.
Master: Irresponsibility always hurts someone.

Big class today.

Blue Balls

If you have been caught up in the blue ball craze (a Rube Goldberg animation) and tradegic accident then you will really appreciate Amanda Congdon from Friday, Nov 18.

Read about the origins of the blue ball machine as a collaborative project.

Stuff those stockings!

Oh yes! Colored bubbles!

Got some extra cash burning a hole in your pocket?

8 foot of speaker wire for $11,700.

Progress!

Wahoo! Another billable done! Now for some chores.

What's hurting I-65

Anyone know why Interstate 65 between mile marker 117 and 112 is at a stand still?

Answer:A dead dear and a car accident and construction at exit 92

A joke for James

James is enjoying posting jokes at Puerilis so here's one for him:

A man and a woman were sitting beside each other in the first class section of the plane.

The woman sneezed, took out a tissue, gently wiped her nose and then shuddered for 10 or 15 seconds. The man went back to his reading.

A few minutes later, the woman sneezed again, took a tissue, gently wiped her nose and shuddered again. The man was becoming more and more curious about the shuddering.

A few more minutes passed and the woman sneezed one more time. Again she took a tissue, gently wiped her nose and shuddered violently. The man couldn't restrain his curiosity. He turned to the woman and said, "Are you all right?"

"I'm sorry if I disturbed you," the woman replied, "I have a rare condition; when I sneeze, I have an orgasm."

The man was a little embarrassed but even more curious and said, "I've never heard of that before. What are you taking for it?"

The woman looked at him and said, "Pepper."

Tired of spam?

Tired of spam? Quit using email!

Darren Lennard became something of a creative-class everyman a month ago when, after a long and onerous day at the office, he plucked his hyperactive BlackBerry from his silk-lined pocket and proceeded to smash it on the gleaming granite countertop of his London home. What makes Lennard's e-mail outburst unique is that it was embraced by his superiors.

Link provided by Kurzweil AI.

I have not failed, I have "deferred success"

Tired of your boss? Work for yourself!

Ever consider the glamourous life of an overpaid independent consultant? Being a free agent and setting your own hours while raking in the dough sounds fun right? Let's see...one client over due on an $800 bill, another client over due on $1600, others, I'm behind on a project that I underbid and overworked so I can't bill it yet and my network just died, the mortgage is due Sunday, cable, phone and electric are due, the kids are making Christmas lists and funny thing is they want to eat.

Working for yourself...the stress-free way to retire early! Oh, and I almost forgot the best part: everyone you know wonders what you do and assumes that you are goofing off all the time.

Today's Technical Issue

Apparently my connectivity issues have been to a failing network hub. Its uplink port will not maintain a connection with the router. Deterred? No. I'll just make a crossover cable and use an available port.

Of Grasshoppers

Student: I am a complete failure.
Master: At least you finished something.

Messy Mangers

Tim turned me onto this article by Mike Bellah that actually says mess is ok (sloppiness and laziness is not).

Whether it's fruitful fields or fruitful people, success doesn't come without a degree of messiness.

The mess we have is our lifes. It is how we live and although I would like to see the mess reduced, we have a messy manger for a reason.

...lives that are always clean and tidy may have the appearance of success, but, in reality, they are empty, lonely places.

Mike Bellah's article has its roots in Proverbs 14:4

Where no oxen are, the manger is clean. But much increase comes by the strength of the ox.

Of Grasshoppers

Student: What do you do when the hopelessness is too great?
Master: Disappoint someone.

Tonight's Lesson

If you heard liquid splashing on concrete then something probably spilled.

I smile

Now that's funny! I posted the church sign and the Amazon ad in the left column changed to a book called "God's Blogs"!

What?!

Thanks Michael!

True Lost Fans Need to Get Technical

So if you want to catch all of Lost you'd better get yourself a nice cell phone with Verizon and an Apple video iPod!

The deal is a fresh example of the broadcast networks' rush to embrace portable media -- but this time with original content. Disney might have triggered the trend with its groundbreaking deal to make episodes of "Lost" and other Disney programming available on the new video iPod.

I'll have to wait until the "Lost Video Diaries" come out another way because you couldn't get me to use a Verizon phone if you sewed it my hand. As for the details of the Lost Video Diaries, "the series will introduce two characters said to be stranded alongside the cast featured on the primetime version." which is a terribly cool concept!

This tidbit brought to us by lost-tv as pointed out by Critz on Efnet's #coldfusion.

Meditation is good

New Scientist explains that "Meditation builds up the brain." I'm going to have to think on that one.

Touch the Puppet Head

I miss having an Administrative Assistant! Alright. Time to do the dumb things ya gotta do.

Lost

Interesting read for those that like to see where all the numbers showup. This was my favorite albeit a little reaching:

Assign each letter of the alphabet a number so that 1 is A, 2 is B, etc. up to 26 for Z. Then wrap back to the beginning so that 27 is A again, 28 is B, 29 is C, and so on.

4: The 4th letter in the alphabet is D
8: The 8th letter in the alphabet is H
15: If you add 4 + 8 + 15, you get 27 which wraps back to A.
16: 4 + 8 + 15 = 27, and 4 + 8 + 15 + 16 = 43. 27 + 43 = 70 which gives you a R.
23: 16 + 23 = 39, which is M.
42: 4 + 8 + 15 + 16 + 23 = 66, and 23 + 42 = 65. 65 + 66 = 131 which is an A.

Headaches

The school called to report that 25 minutes into the school day Noah has reported a headache. She said it came on outside when he was waiting for the bus. Is there something stressful about the bus ride? Noah stresses over school far too much! It could also be the cold front that has come through. Noah is very sensitive to weather changes. It could also be that the fumes lingering in the house from the burnt popcorn set him off.

I want to get him into a chiropractor. I prefer Barry Bridges (of course, I'm supposed to plug my brother here but 5 hours is a long way to drive for an appointment). Barry has a great approach to Chiropractic and a fantastic bedside manner.

Time to take Tylenol to the school.

PEeewhew!

The persistent stench in the house reminds me of the time I shutdown the Digital Crossing Building downtown. Yes, I evacuated the Digital Crossing building. See, I was working late and needed a snack but I had been up for a couple of days (wrote an ad server in 4 days complete with campaign management and ..well, that doesn't matter) so after putting my popcorn in the microwave I went back to programming. After the smoke alarms went off and the building alarms started screaming with the flashing lights saying to "get out" I remembered my popcorn. Then a nice fireman came to walk through the building and make sure everyone else working late knew that I was hungry and needed a snack.

Microwave popcorn left in the microwave beyond the 2 second pop limit (don't judge it by minutes!) starts to burn. Left too long it mergers into a black block and produces a thick gray smoke. Given enough time I am certain it would erupt into flame. All that aside, burnt popcorn stinks to high heaven!

Microwave popcorn should come with a warning label "if you should be on Ritalin but aren't, do not use this product!"

My wife said I wasn't clear. Yesterday, I wanted a snack and put some microwave popcorn in the oven. It said to pop from 1.5 minutes to 4 minutes so I maxed it at 4 knowing that we typically are done in 2. Then an incident happened and I rushed out of the kitchen to forget the popcorn. Those 2 extra minutes almost started a fire! And today the house still reeks and the microwave is going to require extra cleaning. So, I guess I can't be taught.

Lost in an hour and 14 minutes!

Orwell UK Style

The leap from tracking every vehicle movement 24/7 on UK roads and retaining the information in a database for 2 years to tracking every person's every movement 24/7 is not that big. From license plate recognition to facial recognition just doesn't seem that big a deal. Just a tad scary.

I hope my friends, with the office here and in the UK, that work in the camera license plate recognition business are reaping the benefits!

The only time you will ever see amy ride in a cart!

West Bound Traffic Restored

The camera shows that traffic is flowing westbound again.

More on the accident

News Sentinel readers give their comments on how the accident affected them. That link has a nice picture of the overturned truck. The live cam seems to be showing the truck still in the same place 9.5 hours later (but I can't be sure).

WATE has the story (with more good pictures) explaining that "the truck [was] carrying a load of the chemical cyanox, a chemical used in the making of plastic"

Tennessee Dept. of Transportation officials say it may be all day before the truck is cleared because the chemical in the tanker must first be removed. Though officials were initially concerned about the chemical carried in the truck, they've determined in does not pose an explosion or inhalation danger.

Just 3 days ago, I-40 was shutdown for 12 hours. Seems we need FEMA or somebody to give us a Interstate disaster plan.

TDOT Camera Zooms to Accident

So has anyone else noticed that they've zoomed the West Hills camera in on the accident scene?

Interstate still blocked.middlebrook looks good.

I've got troubles

Seems that I cannot reach TN Lottery Results which means the server that hosts my webcam captures is unreachable. So far I have figured out that another comcast user using the same name server that I use can reach the site fine. My computer and my wife's computer cannot which means that it is unlikely (but not impossible) Comcast's problem and it is not a machine specific problem. My focus must be on two things. 1) Is something wrong with the router or 2) Has my server host blocked me due to uploading a picture every 30 seconds (I think this is likely but you'd think they'd let me know.)

Tanker Truck Turns Over At West Hills

West Hills at I-40/I-75 live.

Walker Springs at I-40/I-75 live.
Traffic Cameras provided by TDOT SmartWay (per linking policy)

These are the cameras that you see around town. These are not red light cameras. The red cameras have not been installed yet.

The accident at West Hills could have the Interstate closed until noon or longer.

The following content reposted from June 22, 2005.

I'm an observant person. I watched the traffic cams get installed by TDOT. For a long I have intended to call TDOT and ask, "are those cameras available to the public?" Ironically, being a web guy, I never bothered looking online until one of the local news stations mentioned the 75 cameras are online (though by my count I only see 66). Have a look at a picture of a TDOT SmartWay camera.

Additional information about the TDOT $20 million SmaryWay system is available including cameras statewide and information about Tennessee 511 a service that provides traffic information from any phone. TDOT is also in Alabama.

From the Smartway FAQ:

Other benefits include:

• Providing live video to local television stations that is used during their rush hour traffic reports
• Website access to current construction and incident information.
• Shorter crash response time by emergency response agencies including TDOT HELP trucks
• Using the system to assist in AMBER ALERTS
• Radio reports of current construction and incident information available on the highway advisory radio (HAR) system.
• Use of the system to complement Homeland Security evacuation plans

Now when you want to leave the house you can check to see if I-40 is jammed or not!

East of I-40/640 at I-40/I-75 live.

East of Pellissippi at I-40/I-75 live.

Furthest western camera West of Lovell Rd at I-40/I-75 live.
Traffic Cameras provided by TDOT SmartWay (per linking policy)

 

I took an online career test

Your Career Type: Artistic

You are expressive, original, and independent. Your talents lie in your artistic abilities: creative writing, drama, crafts, music, or art. You would make an excellent: Actor - Art Teacher - Book Editor Clothes Designer - Comedian - Composer Dancer - DJ - Graphic Designer Illustrator - Musician - Sculptor The worst career options for your are conventional careers, like bank teller or secretary.

What's Your Ideal Career?

Tanker truck overturned on interstate 40 at west hills will have interstate closed for a lengthy time.

Middlebrook near standstill due to i40 closure

Durable Data

Spy Journal Tech Tips turns us onto a crash test of Corsair's new, rugged flash drive.

You're Fired!

I'd like to fire me but I haven't found a suitable replacement yet.

Calgon!

Some nights you should be allowed to buy valium or vicodin over the counter.

Of Grasshoppers

Student: Can't control the panic.
Master: Then do something else.

Where you get your health care does matter!

Having your eye eatten away by ants while recovering in the hospital has got to be no picnic!

Another humorous photograph

Our gay Navy.

Today's Smile

This postis going to have me laughing the rest of the day.

Comcast Bites

Comcast's DNS servers suck eggs.

Catching Worms

Yes! I'm up and going at 3:30am! Woke at 3 to rescue a crying child and actually managed to resist the temptation to return to bed. This is how a day should begin!

How do you connect to your vote?

Democrats use broadband; Republicans dialup.

Because kids know more than parents...

Oh Kim! Thanks for the smile!

ColdFusion On Wheels

As an answer to Ruby On Rails for ColdFusion, Rob Cameron has created ColdFusion on Wheels. Having a general distaste for the hype that comes with "frameworks" such as Fusebox, Mach-II, Model-Glue and so forth, I will explore with trepidation but to satiate curiosity and be able to knowledgeably speak of such methods I will look into them thoroughly.

Rob Cameron will soon have a site at http://www.cfwheels.com/. And, wow, he's gone to the trouble of putting together a video tutorial!

Wanna Be Artist

I sure wish I had this kind of talent! My brother will appreciate that one.

Thanks to Drawn! for the link!

Its raining so naturally the cable is out. We cannot drive a block without seeing a utility truck.

Need a free domain name?

The TLD .be is currently free.

Didn't see that coming!

Whoa! Microsoft and Yahoo to Link IM Networks "Users will be able to exchange text messages, PC-to-PC voice chat."

Their partnership suggests that Microsoft and Yahoo may have set their eyes on higher advertising revenue based on a larger aggregation of instant messenger users

Google has put fear into them!

I'm a winner!

I almost forgot! I won my first Blingo prize! I won a movie ticket and since I signed up under my wife she won a movie ticket! A note: Be careful about who you sign up under as a single household can only claim 2 prizes a month meaning Cathy and I are done for a month. She could have rolled the dice and not claimed the movie ticket but we thought a date on Blingo was not bad. They offered an alternative prize of $10 to iTunes. The prize just before mine was an IPod Shuffle!

Sign up under me or under my wife and lets win together! There is no catch or obligation and it doesn't generate spam. Blingo returns the same results you would see by searching google but they add some Adsense ads at the top and bottom of the results which is how they make their money.

Is the Navy recruiting in the elementary schools?

My 4th grader just said, "Dad, did you know that if you get one of your degrees in college and join then Navy that the Navy will pay up to 75% for your 2nd degree?" He explained that someone from the Navy came to his school and showed them pictures of ships. To me this just seems like a very wrong type of recruitment ploy but I suppose the thought has to be planted at sometime. If people don't join our military, we will have to have mandatory service or a draft.

Blogger API

Does anyone have any experience with Blogger's API? I'm running into problems trying to implement it in PHP and could use a second eye. And this example has not worked.

Quote of the Day

(Repeat from 11/10/2004)

A professional is someone who can do his best work when he doesn't feel like it.
- -- Alistair Cooke

What is in that head?!

Morning comes and I'm up before the sun.

You know that dream where you are walking around naked and don't really know why. Last night I dreamed I walked into a convenience store and the guy behind the counter was uncomfortably naked. He was sitting on a stool and trying to hide behind things to make it less evident he was naked. I didn't say it to him but had this comforting thought, "Ah! Good. I'm not the only one that forgets to wear clothes."

The dream was far more complicated than that and in technicolor but that certainly a highlight. Time to get to work.

Today's Train Wreck

I can't put it into words. You have to watch this! I did twice. It's worksafe and clean. And great!

Longest Running Blog

So what's the longest running blog you've stumbled across? This guy has been blogging fairly consistently since Sept 11, 2000!

Ever had one of those days that started out on such a good note that it seemed you could do no wrong then you proceeded to screw everything up?

Sleep

I so look forward to the end of my days
When at last I can lay myself to rest.
In darkness troubles are so few
And if allowed peace comes to you.

No conflict for the calmed spirit.
Muscles relaxed without burdens.
Nothing new for the mind.
And plenty, plenty of time.

The Day's journey beats us up.
In the end there is no reward
Aside from the comforting thought
That you burden no one more.

Did you get it?

Dean and Tim.. Did you ever figure this out?

Baby Signs

I think Evan is nearing that age where he can start communicating through sign (amz). He effective has started using his own sign for "pick me up" which is a natural gesture of simultaneously raising his arms above his head and holding them there. As long as we reinforce the sign by picking him up when he does it, the sign will stick.

Cathy and I prefer to teach ASL over made up signs but are flexible enough to adapt to Evan's own choices. The trick is to pick a single sign, like banana, and use it until the child learns it then add another sign. Trying to teach too many signs at once will only lead to frustration. With Amy it was very nice to know that she wasn't just hungry but that she wanted a banana or apple juice before she could speak.

We highly recommend Baby Signs (official site - and it's using ColdFusion! albeit with the horrid Fusebox methodology).

Other posts referencing Amy and signing:

• Special moments with a baby
• Braggin On Baby
• From the Mouths of Babes

Good Things

Had some quality time with Noah teaching him to play Go. And updated New Hampshire's Lottery Results Blog.

Technical Issue of the Day

So I am trying to have a calm relaxing yet productive day. Something I've delayed working on I declare "I'll spend the next hour working on this and be very satisfied" so of course my development server falls off the network. I suspect the network card has failed but who knows. My hour now gets to be spent troubleshooting hardware.

Update:etho-: PCI bus error, bus status 00000020

Resolved: Reseated 3COM 3c905b-tx in a different pci slot.

Well That's Messy!

I was holding Evan during my previous post so I got distracted and forgot to make the last paragraph.

With his flipping over comes a certain amount of pride to mom and dad. It's so cute! And he seems so pleased with himself. And here's the lesson to the new parents. If you turn your back to get a wet wipe when changing a dirty diaper when you turn back the baby won't be where you left him! Ewww.

Baby Reflex Tests

I love that Evan has figured out his hands. He loves that he has figured out his hands. But man is he quick! Coffee, waffles, keyboards, printed specifications, or anything in front of you while holding an Evan on your lap is in severe danger. Reflexes must be sharp!

This morning I put a toy in front of him so I could eat my waffles while holding him in my lap. The toy was in now way as interesting as what Dad had and in a millisecond I almost was wearing my waffles. Nice work Evan!

In other realms Evan has learned to flip over at will. He's like a Weeble. Put him down on his back and before you've fully released him he is on his stomach again! Now he roll back. He has tasted freedom! Crawling is not far off. He can already pick a direction and move himself o an object of desire. Time for major throw rungs in the house!

Today's Mind Opening Reading Material

Appalachia Alumni Association brings us 10 Reasons Gay Marriage Should Be Illegal (which in turn came from TBogg who found it on Craig's List)

Speaking of "Craig"s, anyone know the whereabouts of Craig Howard?

Time to do

Time to cook dinner. All I really want to do is chill out. I think I'll cook dinner and work on a hardware issue at the same time. I also need to do one small thing to the house.

Like Sheep To The Slaughter

Would your children know how to save themselves in a school shooting? I'm not even sure I like the idea of having to teach this to a young person. I try to teach trust, honesty, confidence and following the rules yet to prepare a child to deal with such a situation we have to teach them insecurity (look over your shoulder), awareness (not a bad thing but in this context we are teaching suspicion), lack of trust, conspiracy and fear.

In college I pranced across the lawn at UT and looked at my surroundings and thought, "wow, if a snipper were in that tower or atop any of those buildings I could die right now." But I chose to embrace my moment and enjoy life rather than rush from bush to bush and shadow to shadow trying to evade the imaginary killer. Is a child capable of such a decision?

Sweet! ColdFusion rocks and here's why!

So you want to include a Google Map on your site? With ColdFusion you can do it in two lines of code using CFGoogleMaps!

<cfscript>
    //Create the object
    cfgm = CreateObject('component','cfgooglemaps');
    //Pass the init function your google key and the
    //lat and lon on which the map should be centered
    cfgm.init('INSERT GOOGLE MAP KEY',38.898748,-77.037684);
</cfscript>

<cfoutput>
    <!--- Now just output the map --->
    #cfgm.getMap()#
</cfoutput>

Kudos to The ColdFusion Podcast!

Good shows, Bad axe

7th Heaven and Arrested Development have been cancelled.

Beyond

I used to be
I am
If I can
I will be.

Catholic Magazine Shows Naked Bottom

The Famiglia Cristiana weekly has apologized for showing a naked bottom in a country where nudity is common in non-religious magazines. If you want to see what the fuss is about, Speigel's Daily Take has published the photograph toward the bottom of the page.

The advert, for a maker of ventilation machines, shows a naked bottom through a misty glass shower door. “If you want to see clearly, call an electrician now,” reads the text.
...
Editor Antonio Sciortino initially defended the magazine’s decision to run the advert but backed down after complaints from readers.

Instead of apologising, shouldn't he have just asked for forgiveness?

OOoh! So it is a mental thing!

Come one ladies! Let's feel good about ourselves! Body image, not menopause, causes lack of desire

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Women who lose their sexual desire as they age may not be the victims of hormonal changes but may be reacting to their own body image, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday. The more a woman perceived herself as less attractive, the more likely she was to report a decline in sexual desire or activity over the past 10 years...

If we tell you that you look good, we aren't lying!

Nearly 21 percent of the women could not think of even one attractive feature and reported an overall sense of dissatisfaction with their bodies...disliked their stomachs or abdomens, hips, thighs and legs.

The result?

Two-thirds of the women said they either desired sex less than 10 years before or that they had sex less often.
The women reported that when they did have sex, there was a high level of enjoyment, with 72 percent saying they were physically and emotionally satisfied in their sexual relationships.

"A high level of enjoyment" so feel good about yourself and, well, feel good!

A story for you red light camera watchers

I was in the car with a friend of the mine the other day and we came upon a green light and he stopped. The light turned red and he drove through the intersection.

I was scared to death and agast cried out, "Where'd you learn how to drive?!"

He said, "My brother taught me."

I said, "But you're supposed to stop on a red light and go on a green light."

He replied, "But my brother might be on the other street."

Of Grasshoppers

Student: Must I wear a mask for everyone?
Master: Once you don a mask, removing it only reveals another mask.

You guys should curse my cat too

So my ... ahem... naked wife just strolled down here and was busying herself with laundry when she suddenly realized the camera was pointed directly at her. Her calm response, "Honey! Could you please turn off your camera?" The only thing preserving her integrity and the PG-13 rating on this blog was...the cat sitting on my keyboard!

Lost Fan Podcast

Frappr brings us this podcast from Honolulu by a Lost fan. (I haven't listened yet)

What did they say?

For you Lost (amz) fans, transcripts are online at an unofficial fan site. The site also has a downloadable Dharma Initiative Countdown Clock! You can now enter the numbers every 108 minutes from your very own computer. :)

Today's Adsense Lesson

Alright, mention legal terms and get $8 clicks on Adsense but mention your cat in a humorous, suggestive way and get public service ads!

Btw, the reason for that post was the cat was feeling needy so no matter how many times I put her somewhere else the cat would walk across my keyboard and get back into my lap. Normally no problem but today I wasn't in the mood then the kicker came when the cat sat on my keyboard tray then launched it through the back of my desk as she jumped to the floor.

Memememe

My pussy is irritating me and I am about to build a desktop cat-apult!

Need Fix

Waiting on Michael... Click. Refresh.. I know his post is coming... Lost Lost Lost....

Exercise that brain!

Shigeki reminds us to keep our minds sharp we must exercise them them. Shigeki bought a very cool calculator that quizes with math problems. I used to do the same thing daily with Yahoo's daily math problem.

Reading is another way to keep our minds sharp and not lose vocabulary. When was the last time you picked up a book?

In related information, a government study on Fish Oil and Alpha Lipoic Acid in Treating Alzheimer’s Disease has been done. (Wow! 10268 studies currently recruiting volunteers!) Fish oils help fight dementia and help the brain.

Lost in 11 minutes!

I need a vacation!

TV Addicts!

Are you a Lost fan? A true fan?

I love my work!

I really do enjoy the work I do. Yesterday I spent the better part of the day sitting in my basement while updating and configuring a server located in the UK. Out of the blue my client who hosts websites started receiving the message "JRun closed connection" and otherwise a blank page instead of seeing the ColdFusion served websites as expected. Not long after that his phone was ringing off the hook with his clients wanting to know when their websites would be back up. There were several issues we resolved but the most influential is described in this MacroMedia technote which basically led us to update the JVM and restart the ColdFusion ODBC Server service (which required rebooting the server).

The rest of my day was working with people in Nashville (security work) and Miami (php programming). I love how technology eliminates physical boundaries!

Morons!

That dream...

You know the one where you walk over to the water fountain and have some water. Then you go to the locker and start to open it. Of course, you are in the halls before the bell rings. Now the bell rings and you realize you are...naked!

Yesterday a friend of mine, the one to whom I passed the Compaq Proliant server, was searching for information on the server and found my blog finding it humorous that I had blogged the issue. I started my blog anonymously so it always takes me back a little when someone I know in the offline world first discovers the writings. Until college I kept everything inside. My psyche was mine alone! Even in college my true feelings and thoughts poured only when beer and liquor flowed; fortunately there was a ready supply of alcohol so I don't think I had many secrets in college.

In the end I quote Popeye, "I yam who I yam and that's all that I yam. Ugg gugugh gugh." To know someone is to understand them.

I love these churchly pictures

Cheer them on!

I don't care how bad you have to go, would you really call the police if two cheerleaders were having sex in a bar's bathroom?

Of Grasshoppers

Master: How are you doing?
Student: If I answered truthfully you'd have me committed.

Practice in Stress Management

Today is going to be totally about stress and anger management. Let's light some incense.

Technical Issue of the Day

I had a client needing to backup and/or restore ODBC datasources to the ColdFusion Administrator today. Pete Freitag just a very nice description showing that CF 5 and prior versions stored the DSN information in these registry keys:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Allaire\ColdFusion\CurrentVersion\DataSources
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ODBC

And MX stores the information in the file cfusionmx\lib\neo-query.xml.

Scheduled tasks are stored in cfusionmx\lib\neo-cron.xml.

Staying Up

I woke at 3am and almost stayed up. Again I woke at 5am and watched a few minutes of television with Noah but did not have the will power to stay up and work. As this day rapidly falls apart I regret not giving up sleep for productivity.

Car accident

Four car pileup at the Huntington/Northshore entrance of my neighborhood with 1 fatality. Wonder if I knew them.

Slick ColdFusion Reference

For you ColdFusion programmers like myself, here's a nice reference. Looks a lot like its using AJAX.

How am I?

Alright. Let's see. Pulse? Yes, still alive. Heart rate? accelerated. Ok, stressed. Breathing? Yup. I guess that's all that counts. Now where are we today? Ah! Ye ol' box o' mail hath been emptied! Granted, mostly just moved to another box but sorted with intentions of getting things back in order.

See, once upon a time I knew to the penny how much money I had, what was coming in and what was going out. I even had an account set up in Quicken for "petty cash" and kept all loose change in a lock box in the house to balance the petty cash fund against. Since Quicken didn't give reports I liked I would also keep records of inflows and outflows by category in an excel spreadsheet. Ah the glory days. Way over the top! But man did it feel good to be able to chart your success (or demise).

Today is nearly the exact opposite. I'm hoping over the next few weeks to come to some sort of happy medium.

The looks on their faces!

Great caption contest!

Bloggers on bloggers

I really enjoyed Barry's addition to Michael Silence's piece on TN Blogging.

Of Grasshoppers

Student: What will we do when the lights go out?
Master: Light a fire somewhere.

So young. Will it see greatness?

Once upon a time they hunted here

Just a wash or a road from long ago?

Beat

Tails you win
Heads I lose
Negativity in my life
Infused
People out to get me
I didn't play by the rules
Owe no man
But what if you do
Try try again
Until its evident
There's no way to win.

The path less travelled has exhausted me. Where's that other road?

Good colors on the trees

There is an owl in our backyard right now. I cannot find it but it sounds cool!

Tug of war

Little climber

Flash

So, did anyone catch the free show on the web cam last night?

Sticky Situations

I suppose if a man can sue Home Depot for getting his butt glued to the toilet then a man can also sue his ex-girlfriend for gluing his genitals to his abdomen and his butt cheeks together.

Missed Crap

Oh man! I was going to pull an all nighter last night but I went to sleep and missed out on a bag of crap.

Machine Be Gone!

The Compaq Proliant DL590/64 server (pdf) (monster) has left my house! I failed to install Windows 2003 Server on it. Couldn't even format the 18gb scsi hard drives. I made some good efforts but am happy to see it in someone else's hands.

My List Today

There is _one_ thing that I want to do today and I pretty sure it won't get done for some time. There are 3 things I'm ranking pretty highly and maybe 2 of those will get done. There are 2 things that definitely need attention and I'm pretty sure one of those will get done. And there is 1 thing that must get completed in the wee hours of the night and it may run over to tomorrow but will be finished before nightfall Saturday. Then I have a couple of self-serving things on the backburner.

Of Grasshoppers

Student: Destiny?
Master: You decide.

Of Grasshoppers

Student: I am just the shell of the man I once was.
Master: So did you keep the good part or bad?

Of Grasshoppers

Student: Beat up again.
Master: Better than beat down.

Looking for a MacroMedia Users Group?

Once upon a time (in the Allaire days) I was heading up the effort to create a CFUG in Knoxville but that's another story. MacroMedia now owns ColdFusion until Adobe finishes the buyout or merger or has that fallen through or already happened? Anyone, using the wonderful world of Google Maps you can now visually find a MacroMedia Users Group. Nice!

Look out for yourself

Always, always! Check the seat before sitting down.

BOULDER, Colo. - Home Depot was sued by a shopper who claims he got stuck to a restroom toilet seat because a prankster had smeared it with glue.

Productivity Sink

The Hardest Riddle On The Internet sucked me in. I got to level 4 of 138 before I had the will power to pull away. Warning! This is fun!

If you have no tolerance for these kinds of things, apparently this is a walk-thru but I haven't looked to confirm.

Can't sell your house? Include yourself!

There is no reason that she could not find a husband..I mean, it is a really nice house.

And she's Norwegian!

Today's Piece of Science

Collective synchronisation:

Collective synchronisation occurs in nature when crickets start chirping in unison. In some parts of the world, fireflies blink on and off in perfect synchrony like a Christmas tree. The monthly cycles of women living together have also been known to synchronize.

I worked at an office staffed mostly by women and there was a particular time each month that simply behooved having a ready supply of chocolate. When Sarah gets a little older the boys and I are going to have to have a monthly camping trip. But anyhow, the article is about bridges.

Programming Constants

Two constants in the world of programming: "Two weeks" and "Close of business"

From the client's perspective both of these mean "I have a commitment and I will take great pleasure in demeaning you when you miss them. I will dangle your check above you and belittle you."
From the programmer's perspective it means "shutup. I'm trying to work."

Of course I'm not being serious. When I say two weeks or cob I mean it.

Future headlines we might see in Denver's paper.

Funny things that we might see in Denver's future headlines:

• "We had a great school system and then the parents started forgetting to bring their kids to school."
• "Violent crime waaay down man"
• "Horticulturally related enterprises up"
• "Homeland Security Investigates Sudden Rise of Fertilizer Sales in Colorado"
• "Denver population increases from 554636 to 'most of the US' overnight"
• "Denver tax revenues increase exponentially for some unknown reason"
• "Denver tires of the Mile 'High' City joke"
• "In today's irony: Denver paper shortage prompts legalization of large hemp crops"
• "Jay Leno fails to deliver coherent monologue because he was laughing so hysterically"
• "Willie Nelson and Jimmy Buffett jointly open The 420 Karoke Bar and tell Schwarzenegger, Stallone and Willis '[they] can have the planet. We've got Denver!'"

World Usability Day

Today is World Usability Day

World Usability Day was created to help everyone know more about the ways to help create a better user experience of our world.
...
we have collected stories about "everyday usability" - examples of the simple ways that technology is Making It Easy in this world.

If you have ever come across a product that was confusing or just did not work as expected, you can print a usability violation form and let the manufacturer, software developer, or other business know.

Thanks to Terreus for the link!

Frustrating to Tears

Apparently <iframe><iframe></iframe></iframe> doesn't work particularly when the iframes are named the same. Basically the source of the iframe was dynamically including itself.. Come on Homer! Say "Doh!"

I am trying to implement an IFRAME but with some content the iframe is showing the scrollbar full as if there is no content below the fold. The iframe is defined as:

<iframe src="<?php echo $contentfile; ?>"
    name="viewportname"
    width="<?php echo $_SESSION['userwidth']-2; ?>"
    height="<?php echo $_SESSION['userheight']-201; /* 131 */ ?>"
    align="top"
    marginwidth="0"
    marginheight="0"
    scrolling="auto">
    <h2>Content requires iframe compatible browser</h2>
</iframe>

For presentation purposes it sits in this structure:

<html>
...
   <body>
      <div>
      </div>
      <div>
         ...iframe here...
      </div>
      <div>
      </div>
   </body>
</html>

Anyone see anything glaringly wrong?

Of Grasshoppers

Student: I'm ruined.
Master: What next?

Restroom Decor

Women's restrooms may get couches but men's restrooms are more fun (safe for work).

Of Grasshoppers

Student: I am so tired.
Master: In the end you will rest.

And homelessly they camped near Gods house until man took it away

Habitat no more

Obviously an old farm